Robin Westen - Oprah Winfrey. A Biography of a Billionaire Talk Show Host

A Biography of a Billionaire Talk Show Host

Whether Oprah Winfrey was talking about her childhood experiences of abuse and rebellion, her lifelong struggle with weight, her favorite books, or her Angel Network of good deeds, the world was listening. Read about how one of the richest and most powerful women in the world reached this pinnacle of success.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Robin Westen is a freelance writer, magazine columnist, author of several books, and recipient of an Emmy for television writing. Her books for Enslow Publishers, Inc. include Richard Wright: Author of Native Son and Black Boy.

Standing under the hot South African sun, Oprah Winfrey beams brightly. Winfrey, the wealthiest and most powerful American woman in the entertainment industry, is wearing an elegant dress, gold jewelry, anda construction workers hardhat. Standing beside her, also in a rugged hardhat, is the world-renowned civil rights activist and former president of South Africa Nelson Mandela, along with the South African minister of education, Professor Kader Asmal, and several other respected dignitaries.

Winfrey gathers her strength, jabs a shovel into the ground, and scoops up a hefty mound of rich, dark earth. She tosses it into the air, and the press and spectators erupt into enthusiastic applause and resounding cheers.

It is December 6, 2002. Winfrey has just broken ground for the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls, a South African boarding school for grades seven through twelve. The new school will be devoted exclusively to 450 academically talented young women.

The academy, which opened in 2007, holds a special place in Winfreys heart. The Oprah Winfrey Foundation, an organization that was established to support the well-being of women, children, and families around the world, pledged $10 million to build and to maintain the school.

At the ground-breaking, Winfrey told the crowd: Education is the way to move mountains, to build bridges, to change the world. Education is the path to the future.

She added, I believe that education is indeed freedom. With Gods help, these girls will be the future leaders on the path to peace in South Africa and the world.

Winfreys vision for the school included classrooms that hold the latest in state-of-the-art technology, such as personal computers and well-equipped science laboratories. There is also a fully stocked library with wall-to-wall books, an amphitheater designed for performances, and a gymnasium, as well as several sports fields, hundreds of dormitory rooms, and a vast dining room. The academy for girls was built on twenty-two acres in Guateng Province, which is south of Johannesburg.

Winfrey poured her heart and soul into this project. She wants the school to embrace the young students in a nurturing and supportive environment. Winfrey is also focusing her attention on the educational programs, ensuring that they will be of the highest standards.

Even though Winfrey had an extremely hectic schedule back in the United States at the time of the schools ground-breakingwith her enormously successful daily talk show, a busy production company that creates television programs as well as full-length movies, the cable network Oxygen, the national magazine called O, as well as numerous other philanthropic projectsshe made this promise: I will be overseeing even the smallest details.

Winfrey then gave an example of her commitment to the academy: As I sat down with my staff the other day and we were talking about the library, I said, There is no fireplace in the library. This is the girls home. They need a fireplace in the wintertime to read. So, well have a fireplace in the library. I believe we will make this school a home.

Breaking ground for the academy was not Winfreys only stop in South Africa that year. During the same Christmas season, she traveled throughout the country with thousands of boxes filled with clothing and toys for more than fifty thousand orphans. Most of these children lost their parents because of the AIDS epidemic. Winfreys gift giving was coined Christmas Kindness South Africa 2002.

After her return, even though it was back to business as usual, Winfrey remained deeply moved by her experiences in South Africa. Her journey through the country, giving away gifts to AIDS orphans, was especially life-changing for Winfrey. Seeing the faces of the children and witnessing their joy was a contagious and powerful experience: I realized joy has a texture if theres enough of it, you can feel it in the room. I said in that moment, Okay, God, I get it!

Thanks to her trip to Africa, Winfrey decided to use her influence to make the world aware of the seriousness of the AIDS crisis in South Africa. One devastating fact she cited is that 99 percent of AIDS-infected Africans are not able to get the drugs they need.

More than 13 million children under the age of fifteen living in a part of Africa known as the sub-Sahara have lost at least one parent to AIDS, and the number is growing. More than 90 percent of the worlds orphans live in Africa.

In 2003, Winfrey visited South Africa again. This time she personally hosted 124 AIDS-infected children from Soweto at a special celebrationan unforgettable Christmas party. As they arrived, the children walked down a red carpet and were welcomed with hugs and kisses.

This was especially powerful because sometimes people are afraid to touch children with AIDS. They mistakenly believe the disease is spread by casual contact.

Throughout the day, the children were treated to festivities including music and games and plenty of food. They were also given gifts of toys and shoes. For some of the children, who had lived for so long with nothing, the day was overwhelming. One little girl was so excited that she could not open her present, and instead was kissing the plastic, said Winfrey.

At the end of the party, the children received photos of themselves standing next to their famous host, Winfrey. It was the best day of my life, Winfrey said, just to see the joy on these kids faces.

Although Winfrey feels a special connection to South Africa, it is far from the only place she has cast her generous gaze, and it is hardly the first. It is estimated that since the late 1980s, the media mogul, who was born to a struggling single mother, grew up in poverty and hardship, and spent her early years in a small, rural farmhouse in Mississippi, has donated more than $50 million to charity.

Winfrey has hopes for many future charitable endeavors. On her list are plans to help pay for the construction of additional schools in South Africa, as well as a school for girls in Afghanistan, where the Taliban, a strict Islamic military group that was in power in the country until 2002, had kept girls from attending school.

Winfrey also plans to produce a documentary about orphans throughout the world. The idea came to Winfrey during her trip to Africa, where she met children as young as nine years old who were taking care of their siblings after both parents had died of AIDS or other diseases.

To bring attention to this problem and to do what she can to change it, Winfrey also plans to bring in other charitable organizations so they can pool their efforts.

If the past points to the future, there is little doubt Winfrey will succeed. Obstacles never stood for very long in Winfreys way when she was growing up. She learned as a child to meet lifes challenges head-onand to follow the light of her open heart and generosity.